Volunteer Opportunities

Local businesses, community groups and families can donate about 2 hours of their time every three months to monitor the health of local streams. Teams of 3-5 people are optimal.

Volunteers are trained in a simple procedure to assess the health of a stream by counting the animals living in a particular section of it. The monitors then record and report their data to the agency coordinating the monitoring program.

Using a network of volunteers to monitor streams means that much more data can be collected than if any single group or agency attempted to monitor independently. Volunteer stream monitoring has a 20-year history in Ohio, where it was begun by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.